All of Germany just signed up to this micropayment app that people think is the future of news on the web

Blendle, the Dutch startup that allows users to pay small
micropayments for individual newspaper and magazine articles
rather than having to sign up to digital subscriptions, has just
signed up all the major German national newspapers to its
service.

Not just some of them — all of them. Eighteen dailies
and 15 weeklies. The app now has an almost complete lock on
national news in Germany.

That's big news, not just for the two-year-old startup, but also
for the wider digital publishing ecosystem. The success of a
micropayments models depends on well-known publications signing
up. (If just one publication in a particular market operates some
form of paywall, readers will often look elsewhere to find free
content.)

Blendle CEO Marten Blankesteijn says in a news release: "The very
best articles in the German language are published in print
magazines and newspapers, or locked up behind paywalls. But many
people don't have a subscription, so they are missing all these
amazing stories."

Blendle users register and enter their credit-card details just
once. The service creates a type of digital newsstand that serves
a feed of stories about the topics users are interested in,
trending stories, and those that have been curated by their
friends or celebrities and public figures. When users click on a
headline, the app or website takes a small payment, with revenue
split roughly 30/70 between Blendle and the publisher. And if
readers don't like an article, they can get an instant refund if
they provide feedback on what wasn't to their liking.

The pricing is set by the individual publisher, but articles cost
20 cents each on average. Blendle tells us publishers will be
adding its micropayments service on top of their existing digital
paywall strategies, giving readers choice on which route to take.

The company, which was founded by two 28-year-old former
journalists — Blankesteijn and Alexander Klöpping — says it has
attracted more than 300,000 users to date. It says Blendle has
generated more revenue for Dutch publishers — where most of its
users are based — than Apple.

With the ubiquity of free content online, publishers have been
experimenting with different ways to make money from their online
properties. Some, including the Financial Times and The New York
Times, have gone down the paywall route. Others, including The
Guardian and Mail Online, are sticking to advertising-funded free
content.

Technology companies are also working with major publishers to
make the content-consumption experience work better, load faster,
and make more money through advertising revenue share deals.